


the aftermath

by cosmicpoet



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Forgiveness, Simulation, postgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-11 00:41:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15303651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicpoet/pseuds/cosmicpoet
Summary: Korekiyo sits in his room after the simulation and tries to reconcile himself with, well, himself.





	the aftermath

Every single room in the hospital is air conditioned. The heat of summer is relentless, and the artificial breeze is sometimes the only relief that Korekiyo gets; even then, it doesn’t seem to be enough. Trapped in silk-white walls that may as well be matte-black, the exhaustion hits him hard - although his days are spent in the solitude of reminiscing, it seems as though even breathing exerts an inhuman amount of energy on his fragile body.

The simulation, despite being monitored throughout by Team Danganronpa, took a toll on all of their bodies. Being fed through tubes and wasting away through lack of movement had left them all frail and fragile; Korekiyo knows that his skin looks like thin paper, and the bones that protrude from underneath enamour and terrify him. It’s his body, of course, but he feels like a stranger in this taut skin; inhabiting a ghost.

The thing is, the only memories he has of himself are fake ones. Everything else - everything _real -_ he’s had to learn once more. It’s strange, reading a journal that he kept at age seventeen, only three years ago, and all he recognises is the handwriting. The words swim, alien to him, across the page until he wipes his eyes.

_“We had to watch Danganronpa in class today, again. I honestly don’t see the appeal. Everyone thinks that the applicants are so brave, but I just consider it stupid to rush into death for fame and glory; that’s the opposite of brave. Danganronpa is a show for cowards. And yet…part of me admires the legacy that it has created. But only the legacy. Not the people, the ‘Ultimates’…if they can even be called that.”_

Damn it. He’s regressed so much from his former self. He wishes that he could transmit his thoughts through this seemingly ancient-dried ink, beg himself to stick steadfast in his morals, not to apply. The worst part, though, is that he now has, with this journal, an immortalised timeline of his descent into depression and Danganronpa. No…that’s not the worst part.

The worst part is that he still isn’t free.

See, he hadn’t read the contract when he’d signed it. Or, if he had, then he’d not thought far enough in the future; he had essentially signed himself away to Danganronpa. So they now own this journal, and it’s in the process of being mass-printed to sell as a collectible item for fans of the Ultimate Anthropologist. Of course, there have been some changes made, naturally - Korekiyo was contractually obliged to rewrite certain parts to show Danganronpa in a more favourable light; make them seem like something worthy of applying to. But in his hands right now, he has the raw, real deal.

_“I know this is going against everything I believe, but I’m applying to Danganronpa. It’s all got too much, the loneliness; I have nobody. Distant parents who don’t even realise I’m alive half the time, no siblings, no friends…at least in the show, I’ll become someone else. I don’t give a damn about fame or glory, I just want to be someone else, and maybe then I’ll find some friends.”_

It’s too hard to read. Korekiyo imagines that his former self really had that cliché Danganronpa hope, and that’s what hurts him most. Because he can hear, through the door of his hospital room, that his former…classmates…are walking round, talking to one another, _recovering._

And he’s glad for them, truly, because they deserve that kind of second chance, even with Team Danganronpa looming over them at every possible opportunity; but he doesn’t deserve that. He would bet his life - not that it means much to him, anyway - on the fact that none of them give a shit whether he’s alive or dead. 

So, all he has is his failing body and the air conditioning. He’s just tall enough to push his face right up against it, feeling the unfamiliar - and yet, most likely familiar from his real life, pre-Danganronpa - chill of a breeze on his exposed lips. His own. His body, his face, they belong to him, and he refuses to wear a mask.

When there’s a knock on his door, he jumps, frail and terrified. It’s not time for his medication, and he should have been warned of any changes to his schedule, so what is causing this? Fearful curiosity in his shaking hands, he opens the door.

And it’s Tenko.

He braces himself, ready to be hit, and only hears weak, anxious laughter in response.

“Korekiyo, I didn’t come here to beat you up,” she says, softly, “can I sit down?”

“O-Oh,” he replies, motioning to his bed, “yeah.”

“Look, I couldn’t punch you even if I wanted to. I was never the Ultimate Aikido Master, alright?”

“I know that. But why…why come to see me? If you’re here to taunt me, just leave.”

“I’m…I’m not, Kiyo. And I’m not here for an apology, either. Look…I just wanted to say, I get it, okay?”

“You…get it?”

“Team Danganronpa made me something I wasn’t. I’m not strong or protective, I’m just scared, yeah? And I think it’d be wrong for me to forgive myself for not being who I was in the game if I didn’t…if I didn’t forgive you, too.”

“You…forgive me?”

“Yeah. Look, Angie and Himiko are dating now, and I’m cool with that. I’ll find a girlfriend one day, and they invited me for afternoon tea with them in the dining room. I thought…it’d be nice to bring you along. Not as the Ultimate Anthropologist, not as the Blackened, just as…a friend.”

“A-A friend?” Korekiyo echoes.

“Yeah. Look, the guy you were in the game killed the girl I was in the game, but that’s not who we are. You seem…oh, I don’t know, good…right? I trust you. And if we’re all gonna recover, we’re gonna do it together. So get out of your room. It’s no use wallowing in sadness and thinking we’re all gonna hate you, you gotta come out here and prove you’re different to how you were in the game!”

“R-Right.”

“Now,” Tenko says, helping him up from his bed and smiling at him with all the confidence of the beautiful, strong woman she is, “how do you take your tea?”

“With milk. Can I just ask,” Korekiyo says, “and forgive me for intruding, but you’re still proud of yourself, yes?”

“How do you mean?”

“In the game, I mean. You were out and proud. I know you’re still a lesbian, because even the _almighty Danganronpa_ can’t change that. And it’s nice…I mean…it was nice, y’know? Seeing you be so accepting of yourself. You should still be that way.”

“Thank you, Korekiyo.”

“I’d like to be your friend,” he says.

“Consider it done.”

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a dear friend! Please comment if you liked it!


End file.
